Birther Report attacks!

It comes from Google through an automatic safety check in the Firefox Browser. I clicked the “Why?” button and the issue was malicious software:

Of the 237 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 28 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2014-02-08, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2014-02-08.

Malicious software is hosted on 1 domain(s), including deore-medias.org/.

2 domain(s) appear to be functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site, including madadsmedia.com/, burstnet.com/.

This site was hosted on 2 network(s) including AS15169 (GOOGLE), AS26496 (26496-GO-DADDY-COM-LLC).

It gets more interesting:

Over the past 90 days, birtherreport.com appeared to function as an intermediary for the infection of 8 site(s) including obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/, obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.ca/, obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.co.uk/.

Is this part of the rumored birther IP honey trap project? Probably it’s related to all of that third-party advertising they include, or maybe they got hacked.

Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari are less informative:

I presume that being an intermediary for attacking browsers is the immediate cause of the violation, and if that is the case, they will get it fixed and be back up sooner or later; however, there are other possible violations of the Blogger content policy.

The most obvious violation is the pop-up advertising in violation of:

Malware and viruses: Do not create blogs that transmit viruses, cause pop-ups, attempt to install software without the reader’s consent, or otherwise impact readers with malicious code. This is strictly forbidden on Blogger.

A more substantive problem is:

Hate Speech: We want you to use Blogger to express your opinions, even very controversial ones. But, don’t cross the line by publishing hate speech. By this, we mean content that promotes hate or violence towards groups based on race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity. For example, don’t write a blog saying that members of Race X are criminals or advocating violence against followers of Religion Y.

I have spoken today with the owner of the BirtherReport.com and he tells me to tell my readers to bookmark that URL and that the site should be back up in a couple days on another venue. He asks you to be patient. Also if you can, please do consider making a donation … to help the owner cover the out of pocket cash costs to make the transition to the new servers management location.

Funny, I don’t recall ever having any out of pocket costs moving between hosts, but then again I always did it myself.

Kerchner, of course, blames it all on Obama: “This smells politically motivated to me.” He goes on to say:

Since Oct 2008 I have seen numerous sites using the Google Blogger platform to post information unfavorable to Obama taken down by Google with allegations of violations of TOS but sites favorable to Obama are left alone. And from what I hear, when the owner tries to find out what the exact specific problem is they are told to read the legalese TOS and it is all explained therein.

I hadn’t noticed that, but then I wasn’t looking for it. Kerchner thinks Klayman should file a class-action lawsuit against Google on behalf of “conservatives and constitutionalists” that Google hasn’t treated fairly. Why does Google have to treat anyone fairly? Is Fox News fair and balanced?

Does anyone know who owns the website? Kerchner says he talked to the owner today:
I have spoken today with the owner of the BirtherReport.com and he tells me to tell my readers to bookmark that URL and that the site should be back up in a couple days on another venue. He asks you to be patient. Also if you can, please do consider making a donation to help him make the transition to new servers: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=GRAHHMX2CF24J

No possibility, I guess, in the minds of birthers that this could just be a scam to separate them from their money? Of course not…….it’s Obama!!!

I’m going to assume that this Google-hosted site has up-to-date software patches and that the fault lies with the site owner. One way to get hacked is to use a weak password. The other way is to let your site host other people’s content, opening yourself up to whatever they do. I think the latter is the case with Birther Report.

This site has very little dynamic 3rd-party content: embedded, YouTube videos, Scribd documents and the Twitter feed being the most common. There are some fonts and libraries loaded from Google and the avatar images from Gravatar.com. The Print Friendly button goes off site too.

CarlOrcas: Question: Is this just a matter sloppy site management or can it happen to anyone?

The issue is more basic. Most people don’t know how to run secure websites so they rely on whatever hosting company they use to do that. But even if you are using a somewhat clueful hosting service but you are customizing your site and introducing third party elements – you are inadvertently opening up yourself to malware infections. Most birthers are idiots and are bad at judging risk so it doesn’t surprise me in the least that they can’t mitigate risk on their own websites.

I don’t know anything more than I wrote in the story. But if you think a piss-ant-sized web site like The Fogbow can influence Google to shut down a piss-ant-sized web site like Birther Report, then I think you are lacking in a sense of proportion.

john: This seems to an attack probably by the FogBow. I would bet money That I know Doc C. knows whose exactly behind it. Of course, Doc C. ain’t talking

Lacking a sense of proportion (along with an overinflated view of their own importance) is practically a defining characteristic of birthers.

Dr. Conspiracy:
I don’t know anything more than I wrote in the story. But if you think a piss-ant-sized web site like The Fogbow can influence Google to shut down a piss-ant-sized web site like Birther Report, then I think you are lacking in a sense of proportion.

Dr. Conspiracy: I’m going to assume that this Google-hosted site has up-to-date software patches and that the fault lies with the site owner. One way to get hacked is to use a weak password. The other way is to let your site host other people’s content, opening yourself up to whatever they do. I think the latter is the case with Birther Report.

My wife and I use Ghostery and NoScript with Firefox and I’m often amazed at the number of things people allow to run on their websites

We were being driven crazy by pop-ups and other crap and now we have virtually no problems. It takes a while to tweak but its worth the work.

I really don’t know if Birther Report is purely a money-making venture or whether it is primarily ideological. The site is hosted for free, so there’s no justification for advertising to fund the site, but Birther Report is up to its gills in advertising.

Hmmm, looking at the alleged (he said, journalistically) malware sources listed by Google, I see a lot of Russian domains (according to what we all know is the absolutely 10,000%-reliable whois info).

Perhaps the denizens of ORYR shouldn’t have spoken so nastily about “commies” and “socialists”.

But, seriously, folks: is it possible that the TOS violations involved the calls for the maiming and/or killing of Obama supporters getting more explicit and concrete as Z(ero)-Day approaches? That might’ve changed the “hate speech” judgment from “maybe” to “definitely”.

Oh, hell no: if you banned stupidity and the promotion thereof, most retail ISPs would be out of business in a matter of weeks, and half the hosting sites would be swapping racks full of servers for canned food.

Given that the alert says that Google has detected malware working through BirtherReport.com I would be disinclined to think that this problem has anything to do with the content. Over the past year, the posts and the comments have gotten way, way angrier but they’ve also gotten sillier, in the sense that all they do is pass on inaccurate RWNJ BS about what a horrible place the United States of America is. I personally would not judge it to be hate speech because its content is just too damn stupid.

RanTalbott: But, seriously, folks: is it possible that the TOS violations involved the calls for the maiming and/or killing of Obama supporters getting more explicit and concrete as Z(ero)-Day approaches? That might’ve changed the “hate speech” judgment from “maybe” to “definitely”.

Figures. I stop paying attention for a while, came back because curiosity got the better of me, only to find out that fun and interesting things happened in my absence.
Oh, but I’m loving this little development. Birthers all over the net are collectively crapping their pants over it. I wonder if they’ll find that “one easy trick” that “fema absolutely hates” to keep their blog hosted elsewhere.

Really John? How much money are we talking here? Seriously, I’ll match any stake you want to put up. I’ll even give you 5 to 1 odds. I’ll put the deed to the farm on the block. I’m dead serious here John. I’ll take that bet. I’ll even pay for the lawyer to hold the wagers in trust so you can remain anonymous.

Given the availability of ambulance chasing lawyer types and the quality of lawyers like Klayman and Taitz, I doubt I’d find it difficult to find a lawyer that thinks that is libel.

Also, somewhere in this great mess it has been pointed out that the TOS of the Blogspot(?) free hosting has a clause about targeting individuals. I can say from experience I have both been on the receiving end of this and involved in the initiating of this type of complaint. IMHO some birther has overstepped the mark and the hosting company has taken action following a complaint,

John – why would Obots try to shut down a website that provides us with so much amusement? Truly when birther websites go down, we are as sad as the birthers. We rely on it to provide amusement in our grey lives.

interestedbystander: John – why would Obots try to shut down a website that provides us with so much amusement?

True dat. I look to Birther Report for the same kind farcical buffoonery that The Three Stooges provide. Once you understand that the shameful calls to violence are nothing more than senile gum-running, their childish posturing, gross misunderstanding of law and politics, and outlandish predictions are the perfect antidote for a dreary winter’s day.

All of us at obamaconspiracy should do posts about how much we hate birthers but really really hate hate speech.

Why would we hate birthers? It isn’t as if they have actually accomplished anything, and the prospects that they will accomplish something are nil.

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